What Caused US Voluntary Environmental Agreements?

Abstract Theincreased use of voluntary environmental agreements (VAs) in the United States in the early 1990's prompted,a small but growing,theoretical and empirical literature on their usage. The primaryfocus of this literature has been on the social welfare effects of VAs. As part of this focus, theextant literature on VAs offers explanations regarding why firms and regulators might desire VAs.However a careful reading of this literature reveals that most of the explanations are timeless, and therefore fail to explain the sudden emergence,of VA usage in the United States. Thispaper explains the emergence,of VAs as a change in the American regulatory institution. We